5 games separates us from the 8th seed and 3rd worst record.

8 is more likely, we play Denver three more times and have a somewhat doable remaining schedule, although the Mavs and Heat games seem much harder these days.

There are just too many teams that will be tanking way harder than us at this point. The rest of this season is going to be useful to the staff regardless. It's a way to build something with AD and Boogie. Nets, Kings, Lakers, and Sixers would be tough to catch.

I dom't see either happening, but 8 would be cool to see

They'll probably go 4-3 in those games with 2 losses to Denver so they'll finish around the 10 seed with little chance of getting a top 3 pick which really sucks.

They have to beat Denver all 3 to make the playoffs, IMO.

We're fricked on both accounts

Portland has a favorable schedule as well. I don't want the 8 seed but if i feel like we'll get it.

I believe you guys and Denver will finish .5-1.5 games back. It'll be close and possibly down to the last game.

We obviously need to beat some upcoming teams that we won't be favored to win against, and it is crucial Denver come down to earth and loses 4 of their next 5.
If they go 1-4, and we can somehow go 3-2, before we play them, we can make up 3 games very quickly in the next 6.

I'm not too worried about Portland or Minny. If we do enough to overcome Denver, we can get the 8th spot.

IF we can go 10-5 to close the season out, beating Denver 3 times and Portland in the finale, we should get in. That would require us to win games we are supposed to win against the lakers, Sac, and Minny, winning 2 out of 3 against Miami/Dallas/Chi, then then stealing one from Houston or Memphis, possibly the late one against GSW if they aren't caring anymore.

I think if we lose to Denver just once, we likely have no chance whatsoever.


The very likely scenario is we end up in the 10-14 range, and the best hope with that is we look better as a team going forward.

quote:

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Goal in these final games is same as it ever wise- finding out what works and what doesn't

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Not sure why this has changed for so many here. Highly unlikely to make the playoffs or keep the pick. Enjoy watching the evolution of Boogie/AD and gain valuable information on how to play these two and what needs to be adjusted.

If we luck out and hit on the slim chance of a top 3 pick, that's awesome, but the primary objective is to figure out Boogie/AD, not get a top 3 pick. If the more likley path occurs and we give up the 6th-10th pick, so be it. That was the trade.

People are stuck in tank for a star mode even though we now have 2 stars. That's part of why I started the 2 top 15 player thread this morning. Pretty much since last season went off the rails we've been searching for a harebrained scheme to make a low probability event happen to keep AD. The scheme turned out to be dumb luck, emphasis on dumb.

We got our low probability event folks, it's time to take advantage of it and properly build around it, not keep aiming for low probability events. If you win the PowerBall you start investing in the financial markets, not more lottery tickets.

For a bottom 6 finish and a small 21% or better shot at top 3 we're talking ending up with 28ish wins. If they finished the season 1-14 or 2-13 from here, I don't see any way you could consider it a good thing. If this team would intentionally tank like the Lakers then maybe, but we all know they won't. So if they keep the pick they either got really lucky and cashed in on 4% or less chance, or they have issues that go beyond firing the coach and tweaking the roster.

The best case scenario isn't cashing in on a 21%+ chance at a top 3 pick, it's going 10-5 or 9-6 down the stretch with AD/DC putting the league on notice that small ball is dead and someone needs to trade for Omer Asik.